Jean Monnet projekt

About the project

The biannual Jean Monnet project ‘EU Competences and National Cultural Policies: Critical Dialogues’ (September 2016 –August 2018) coordinated by IRMO’s Department for Culture and Communication aims to promote discussion and reflection on the impact of the EU agenda on the Croatian cultural policy. Since Croatia’s accession to EU in 2013, there has not been any visible progress in terms of developing better coordination within the cultural policy research community and between cultural professionals and policy-makers responsible for the implementation of different EU instruments and agendas. The overall objective of the project is to establish closer cooperation and networking among cultural policy research community, cultural professionals, and policy-makers responsible for the implementation of different EU instruments and agendas. The project will also serve as a platform for information and communication about the relevant cultural policy processes at the European Union level that will contribute to enhancing knowledge about the impact of the EU and its processes on the national cultural sector. The focus will be placed on EU’s soft cultural policy instruments and mechanisms (e.g. Open Method of Coordination, Creative Europe program, European Capitals of Culture initiative) that represent de facto policy approach to the various cultural policy issues and their related instruments.

In addition to organizing a series of working/networking meetings, promotional events, and building a web platform, the main activities on the project include:

an international conference on EU soft mechanisms ‘Perspectives of national cultural policy development in the EU context: critical dialogues’ (in 2017)

an international round table on the impact of the Digital Single Market strategy on the reforms of Croatian cultural policy (in 2018)

The conference and round table will be open to academia, researchers, cultural professionals and policy-makers, where a special focus will be paid to engagement of postgraduate students and young professionals. By bringing them together, these events will enable the cross-fertilisation of the ideas and fostering of the dialogue between different cultural-policy stakeholders and will contribute to enhancing the knowledge about the relevant cultural policy processes at the European Union level. The special issue of CIRR will serve as a tool for knowledge dissemination among a wider circle of Croatian cultural policy researchers and students.

Expected impact of the project:

(i) to contribute to developing knowledge on the European Union related issues with cultural policy agenda;

(ii) to enable establishment of the closer cooperation among Croatian cultural policy researchers;

(iii) to contribute to bridging the gap between the activities of researchers and academics, cultural professionals and cultural policy decision-makers;

(iv) to provide a focus on students and young professionals with the aim to ensure better position of the EU related topics in the curricula of existing and future programmes, and to kindle interest in EU related topics among young researchers and cultural civil sector by contributing to the development of the educational resources for the university courses in European studies and cultural policy programmes..